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Hi All,
My husband starts a new job in Portland next month and we will be relocating from our home here in WA state. We've found a home to rent in Beaverton. I can't seem to find any land line telephone service in the area. The City of Beaverton website lists three choices for telecommunications: Comcast, Frontier, and AT&T. Comcast and Frontier are both digital, not land line. I contacted AT&T and my current land line provider, Qwest, and neither offers land line service to Beaverton. Is there really no land line telephone service for Beaverton? I find this hard to believe. Any ideas? Thanks.

I am not certain as to why you want to distinguish between "land line" and "digital". If the provider gives you a phone jack and you can plug a standard phone into it... you have a land line. What goes on at the switching office is the phone companies business. Chances are even what you think of as "land line" providers are using digital equipment and in some cases VOIP (voice over internet protocol) but they don't figure you need to know that. FWIW we use Frontier (formerly Verizon). We consider it a landline, so does Frontier.

I am not certain as to why you want to distinguish between "land line" and "digital". If the provider gives you a phone jack and you can plug a standard phone into it... you have a land line.

Woah dude, "landline" very specifically means POTS (plain old telephone service) and nothing else. Don't go getting confused or confusing others by claiming anything involving an RJ11 (standard phone) jack in the wall that allows you to plug a standard phone into it is a "landline." For example, there are devices out there that you can plug into the junction box at the back of your house that will utilize all the traditional jacks in the residence to provide digital phone service (for example VOIP from an internet provider). There are also devices you can use to bridge your house's wiring into a docked cellular device. Numerous other examples exist. Jack in the wall does not necessarily equal "landline."

Another distinction, for Americans, is that "landline" voice service carries a number of fees and taxes which are completely unavoidable no matter whom one pays directly ("the" phone company or any one of a number of resellers). This is one of the many reasons why savvy DSL customers will demand "dry" service, or internet-without-dialtone, on a line (more common today but once you had to absolutely fight with a telco to get them to admit it existed). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, a major distinction of true POTS versus digital replacements from cable companies or ISPs is that it provides its own voltage to the handset. When the power goes out, often your phone still works (and you can call the power company to find out what's up, among other things). When the power goes out for a VOIP customer, they better have a cell phone or they're out of luck.

Khyron, please. I think I know the difference between VOIP and POTS. I was asking the o.p. for clarification on the terms they were using. Our service (Frontier) which she claims is 'digital' works perfectly well in total power failures. So I would like to know what 'digital' means in her context.

Khyron, please. I think I know the difference between VOIP and POTS. I was asking the o.p. for clarification on the terms they were using. Our service (Frontier) which she claims is 'digital' works perfectly well in total power failures. So I would like to know what 'digital' means in her context.

I'm glad you understand, the OP may or may not, but a random person reading the forum certainly might not so I thought it important to clarify. While there are many ways in which "landline" service gets delivered these days (especially before the so-called last mile) the statement "if the provider gives you a phone jack and you can plug a standard phone into it... you have a land line" is simply not factually correct.

Woah dude, "landline" very specifically means POTS (plain old telephone service) and nothing else. Don't go getting confused or confusing others by claiming anything involving an RJ11 (standard phone) jack in the wall that allows you to plug a standard phone into it is a "landline." For example, there are devices out there that you can plug into the junction box at the back of your house that will utilize all the traditional jacks in the residence to provide digital phone service (for example VOIP from an internet provider). There are also devices you can use to bridge your house's wiring into a docked cellular device. Numerous other examples exist. Jack in the wall does not necessarily equal "landline."

Another distinction, for Americans, is that "landline" voice service carries a number of fees and taxes which are completely unavoidable no matter whom one pays directly ("the" phone company or any one of a number of resellers). This is one of the many reasons why savvy DSL customers will demand "dry" service, or internet-without-dialtone, on a line (more common today but once you had to absolutely fight with a telco to get them to admit it existed). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, a major distinction of true POTS versus digital replacements from cable companies or ISPs is that it provides its own voltage to the handset. When the power goes out, often your phone still works (and you can call the power company to find out what's up, among other things). When the power goes out for a VOIP customer, they better have a cell phone or they're out of luck.

Yes, Khyron, that is exactly what I meant by "land line" and you've directly hit on my biggest concern re: digital service vs. POTS ---- loss of power resulting in loss of phone service. And upon doing some research into digital service, notably on Comcast's own user forums, I'm troubled by the frequency of phone/power outages and spotty performance of the battery backup system. I'd much prefer good old fashioned "plain old telephone service". I'm surprised to learn that Beaverton lacks such service.

I've lived in Beaverton since 1999 and have had land-line service the entire time. I currently have Frontier, but will switch back to Comcast if Frontier raises its TV content rates as much as they've been talking about. I've had digital for several years, and I don't recall our phone service ever going out. We live in an area with underground power lines, and power outages have been extremely rare in our neighborhood, so I can't say that I've tried to make a phone call while the power was out.

Frontier is land line service, and not digital phone. The name of their plan is Digital phone, but that is just a name. It is ran over the same old lines that have been hanging from telephone poles for years.

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